New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation was asked on Friday by the Supreme Court to respond to a plea challenging the Centre notification, which fixes Rs 7.5 lakhs as compensation in case of a domestic air passenger's death against Rs 75 lakhs for international fliers.
A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra issued notice to the ministry on a plea challenging a 1973 notification of the Union government, which fixes air liners' liability in respect of passengers, baggage and cargo in different eventualities.
The petition was filed by Bihar native Rajesh Kumar whose son had died in an air ambulance crash last May at Faridabad in Haryana, along with all others including the flight crew members.
The petition, filed through advocate Arun Kumar Sinha, submitted that Parliament has passed the By Air (Amendment) Act, 2009 to extend the benefits available to international passengers to the domestic ones also but the same has not been notified as yet despite the President of India giving her assent to it on March 20, 2009.
Earlier on January 3, a bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari had issued notices to the Centre and Air India on another plea by the father of a May 2010 Manglore air crash victim, seeking minimum Rs 75 lakh compensation for each of the 158 victims.
Kumar in his petition said the notification for the amended act has not been published which indicates that Centre "for some extraneous consideration is not inclined to extend the benefits" of the amended Act to the real beneficiary. "The Central Government is acting under influence of the private carriers and is not issuing notification," it alleged.
"It is submitted that the compensation as fixed under the impugned notification in case of death of passenger is only Rs 7.50 lakhs which is approximately 10 per cent of what is given to the international passengers under the third schedule of the Indian Carriage By Air Act 1972," the petition said.
The petition stated that during 1973 the Union Government was the owner of Indian Airlines, the sole domestic carrier in India at the time, and therefore, it "arbitrarily and with malafide intention" reduced the liability of the Indian Airlines in such contingencies.
The government had in 1973 fixed the liability of the domestic carrier as Rs one lakh only in place of 2.5 lakh Francs which was later increased to 7.5 lakh in 1998.
"It is submitted that this arbitrary, irrational, unreasonable and illegal act of the Central Government has led to an inequality and is direct infringement of the Fundamental Right under Article 14 of the Constitution of India of those domestic passengers who become prey to accidents while travelling by air," the petitioner said.
"The conduct of the Central Government clearly indicates its insensitive attitude towards its citizen and domestic passengers and the same further support the presumption that they are acting prejudicially and against the interest of the domestic passengers under the influence of public and/or private domestic air carriers," it added.
Kumar contended that the international passengers are entitled to claim minimum one lakh SDR (Special Drawing Rights).
According to the Montreal Convention, the international passengers are entitled to have one lakh SDR (Special Drawing Rights) compensation. SDRs are issued by the International Monetary fund and coverts nearly to Rs 75 lakh.
The domestic passengers, however, are entitled to claim only Rs 7.5 lakh, the petitioner said. The petitioner has sought quashing of the 1973 notification saying it has created inequality and violates Fundamental Rights of the petitioners and similarly-placed citizens.
He also sought directions to the aviation ministry to issue notification for the Carriage By Air (Amendment) Act, 2009 in order to extend the benefits to the non-international passengers.
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